Lack of teaching qualifications in staff at Free Schools

One in ten teachers working in Free Schools lack a formal teaching qualification .

Does this concern people ? Is it not unusual in private sector ?

Idea of a 27 year old with no teaching qualification ,no experience of teaching being the headteacher at a primary school certainly worries me .

As does this quote from Observer article She has already said that she will ignore the national curriculum and teach lessons "inspired by the tried and tested methods of ED Hirsch Jr", the controversial American academic behind what he calls "content-rich" learning

As the parent of an unstatemented child with special needs in mainstream schooling, I shudder at the thought of untrained teachers taking him for lessons.

Lots of people can 'teach' in the sense that they are good at explaining things to children, are creative, and are effective planners. Many parents have these qualities or develop them as their children grow up. But delivering differentiated learning to 31 children of different abilities and from a range of backgrounds, with no formal knowledge of theories of learning? Sorry - I'm not convinced.

"a lot of it appears to be general classroom management and some other things that unions consider important at the moment, but can be easily learned by a bright teacher while working"

Have you done a PGCE? Do you actually know what the course involves or are you having a wild guess?

And you think it's unnecessary to have some prior understanding of classroom management techniques before starting work as a teacher?

There is NO WAY I could have stepped into a classroom in a rough comprehensive and managed to keep my head above water in the first year without having done a PGCE. Classroom management is the most challenging aspect of becoming a teacher (unless you teach in a nice little private school and have a class of 14 well behaved and hard working pupils, in which case it's pretty irrelevant). Planning and dealing with behaviour issues are the meat and potatoes of a PGCE. I would truly have hated to be put 'cold' into a classroom in my first year and have had to learn these things on the job, while also having a normal teaching workload.

'The leadership of teaching is inadequate. Teaching is not checked regularly to make sure it is as good as it needs to be. The headteacher reported to inspectors that she does not have the skills to do this. ... Governance is inadequate. Governors are not knowledgeable enough about the schools serious shortcomings.'

Surprising incompetence at the DfE in letting a husband and wife team lacking in teaching and leadership skills be both governors and managers of a school.